Ladybug
Category:Fanon 'Chapter 1' There he stood in a dark lair. With a mix of grief, relief and something else, new to him, he opened a box that he had kept sealed for way too long. He needed power. And so, a purple glowing sphere appeared in front of him. There floated a peculiar creature that reminded him of a butterfly. It had wings, big light eyes and a spiral on its forehead. The man looked at it sadly. He wasn't new to these kind of creatures. "Why, hello, Nooroo", he said. He reached out a brooch from the box and held it in his hand, feeling the power it contained. The kwami looked a bit surprised and scared. But there was nothing it could do about it, as it was now his servant. "M-master!" the creature peeped, surprised by the mere fact that it was awakened. He remained calm. "Tell me about these jewels, I must know more," he demanded. "Yes, Master..." Nooroo replied. "You see, many centuries ago, magic jewels bestowing extraordinary powers were created. These were... the Miraculous. Throughout history, heroes have used these jewels for the good of the human race. Two of these Miraculous are more powerful than the others; the earrings of the Ladybug, which provide the power of creation; and the ring of the Black Cat, which grants the power of destruction"; okay, this is getting interesting! The man thought. "According to legend," Nooroo continued, "whoever controls both these jewels at the same time, will achieve absolute power." "I want that absolute power, Nooroo", he said; he had heard enough. "I must have those Miraculous!" "But nobody knows where these Miraculous are!" Nooroo's voice started to tremble: the kwami was worried. He had an answer to that: "I found you though, my little Nooroo. Your Miraculous... remind me of its powers again." While gently stroking his Miraculous, he continued listening: "The Moth Brooch allows you to give someone their own superpowers and to make that person your devoted follower!" The man smiled menacingly. He had an idea. "And when it comes to luring superheroes, what could be better than creating supervillains?" "But Master, the Miraculous are not meant to be used for evil purposes!" Nooroo was now completely scared. He would not withstand that. He stomped on the floor angrily and yelled at his kwami: "I must have this absolute power! Your Miraculous is in my control! I am your master now, and you must obey me!" He looked down at Nooroo. No way the creature was going to disobey him now! "Yes, Master..." Was all that Nooroo managed to squeeze out. He finally put on the brooch. The Miraculous. "Nooroo, dark wings, rise!" Butterflies gathered all over. He felt them flutter around him as Nooroo flew into the brooch. He felt a mask appear over his face. There was no turning back now. The butterflies flew away and his costume was now open. A ray of sun entered through a butterfly-shaped window. "From this day on, I shall be known as... Hawk Moth!" He laughed evilly. He would find the other jewels and achieve absolute power! 'Chapter 2' Wayzz was peacefully sleeping when, suddenly, he felt some kind of energy whizz by. He woke up in his matchbox-bed and quickly flew to his old owner, who was busy doing a treatment to one of his customers. But this was urgent, so Wayzz didn't think twice about it. "Master, Master!" he cried. Master's customer looked up, surprised. Wrong timing, Wayzz then realised. Fortunately, Master Fu quickly thought of a way to get out of the situation and hear Wayzz out. "Master, Master!" he started imitating Wayzz with a funny voice "... Chanting, it's all part of the treatment!" he explained. Then, with a funnier voice and face, he continued, his hands together and moving from side to side: "Master, Master!" Master Fu pushed out his customer and said, still with the same funny voice: "Thank you for coming, see you again soon!" Master closed the door. Wayzz could tell him everything now. "Master," he started, "the Moth Miraculous! I felt it's aura!" Master replied: "I thought It had been lost forever!" Wayzz wasn't going to ask more than necessary. It was time to get to the point. "But Master," he said, "it's a negative aura. I fear it may have gotten into the hands of a dark power!" "We must find Nooroo and his Miraculous." Master didn't hesitate one bit. He was determined. "If it has gotten into the wrong hands, there is no telling what evil will come upon the world!" Master opened up his bracelet with a green turtle on it. Not that, Wayzz thought. "Time to transform! Wayzz..." Master didn't finish the phrase. He stopped in a weird pose, bent forwards in pain and fell to the floor. "Please, Master!" It was bound to happen, Wayzz thought to himself. "Be reasonable! You are-" "Still young" Master Fu interrupted Wayzz. "I'm only 186. But you're right, Wayzz. I can no longer do it alone." He headed for the old gramophone. Wayzz knew what that meant too. "We'll need some help," he continued. He pressed the eyes of the two silver dragons on the gramophone, entered a secret code and reached out... the Miracle Box. 'Chapter 3' "Marinette! Your alarm's been going off for fifteen minutes! You're going to be late for your first day back at school!" Mom's voice worked like a charm. Well, better than the phone, at least. Still in bed, Marinette said while peeking out from under the sheets: "Got it, mom!" Marinette crawled out and headed downstairs. "Coming!" she said. Her mother was waiting for her there. The girl lazily took the cereal box that was on the table and started pouring it into her bowl as while saying: "I bet you anything Chloé will be in my class again. Chloé was a really nasty girl from Marinette's class. AND the Mayor's daughter. It was impossible to deal with that brat, because each time anyone complained, Chloé would just call her father. And of course, nobody wanted to get him angry. And so, Chloé had been bullying Marinette for already several years. And that wasn't going to change. "Four years in a row, is that possible?" Her mom wasn't as convinced as Marinette was, apparently. "Definitely. Lucky me!" Marinette replied with sarcasm. She knew she was unlucky, always was, always will be. "Oh, don't say that! It's the start of a new year - I'm sure everything will be just fine!" Those words cheered Marinette up a bit. She smiled and gently nodded to her mom as a sign of gratitude. She put down the cereal box. And, as expected, here came the chain reaction: an orange rolled from the fruit bowl down a knife, then made it around the butter and knocked down the carton of milk, the cereal box, and more things, too! Marinette looked with disappointment at her "masterpiece". She groaned. Her mother gently stroked her cheek in a way that said: forget it ever happened, you are still our precious daughter. Marinette shrugged - she was used to messing up, after all - but smiled back. Later, ready to leave for school, Marinette went downstairs and made it to her parents' bakery. Her father was closing up a box of freshly baked macaroons. He was singing a tune - the tune he usually sang while baking. "Dad, these are so awesome!" she said. The macaroons really did look appetising. "Glad you like them" was the reply. "Thank you, Dad, my class will love them! You're the best!" At least one thing was working out! "We're the best," he corrected her, "thanks to your amazing designs!" He showed Marinette her own sketch. The design was also on the box and on all the macarons. Marinette felt both proud and grateful. She hugged her Dad. She nearly dropped the box of macaroons but, luckily, he caught it with his foot and tossed it back. She giggled. Her Dad was really funny sometimes! "Thanks!" she said. She kissed him on the cheek and added: "See you tonight!" 'Chapter 4' Fu needed to find the new superheroes. The Ladybug and the Black Cat. And what better way to find superheroes, he mused, then by setting up a test? He started off by crossing a road with a car driving right in his direction. And the light was RED. That was extremely risky, but surely someone would "rescue" him! He decided to walk with a cane that he took for his role to be more convincing. He actually had no need of it, no matter what Wayzz said. There were people on the other side of the rode. Another clumsy-looking girl with pigtails just came out of a building and nearly ran into a car. Fu was crossing the road. That girl looked at him shocked. The rest didn't seem to care that a car that was coming. The clumsy-looking girl quickly ran out onto the road and helped him quickly cross it, after what she fell onto the pavement. "Thank you, miss" he said. "Oh!" He noticed that the girl had dropped a box full of something clearly delicious - they seemed to be macaroons. A passerby accidentally stepped on what was left. "What a disaster!" The girl looked a bit ashamed. "Don't worry," she said, "I'm no stranger to disasters, besides, there are still a few left!" The girl offered him a macaroon. He tried it and found it, as he said, "Delicious!" Suddenly, a loud bell rang. "Oh no!" the girl cried, "I'm gonna be late! Have a good day, sir!" she politely added with a nod and ran away with the few macaroons that survived. Fu smiled while watching her run and then took a look at a box - a miniature of the Miracle Box -, and entered the building (bakery) that the girl had just left, thinking that he just found the perfect superhero. "Thank you very much, young lady," he said to himself. 'Chapter 5' "Nino, why don't you have a seat in the front row this year?" Seriously?! This phrase, of all possible, greeted Chloé at school when she made it there. Not to mention Dupain-Cheng, who she just saw run into the classroom. This was ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous! She wasn't going to leave this unnoticed! As she watched Marinette sit down at the same place as last year, Chloé slammed her hand on the baker's daughter's desk. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng," she started. "Ugh, here we go again," she heard in response. "That's MY seat!" Chloé spat. "But Chloé, this has always been my seat," the girl said. Meanwhile, Sabrina, her BFF (that Chloé actually just used for her own purposes), came from behind and decided to take care of the situation. "Not anymore," Sabrina said, "new school, new year, new seats!" "So why don't you just go and sit beside that new girl over there?" Chloé continued, pointing at the newbie with slight disgust. "Listen, Adrien's arriving today, and since that's going to be his seat," she pointed at the seat near Nino, "DJ headache", as she enjoyed calling him, "this is going to be my seat. Get it?" To her surprise, Marinette looked simply confused. "Who's Adrien?" she asked. Chloé couldn't hold her laughter. "Can you believe she doesn't know who Adrien is?" Once she calmed down a bit, she added with a poisonous tone: "What rock have you been living under?" Sabrina continued for her: "he's only a famous model!" Chloé then interrupted her, since Sabrina forgot a very important detail: "And I am his best friend. He adores me. So go on, move!" The newbie stomped towards Chloé. That brat dared to tell her: "Hey! Who elected you the Queen of Seats?" That was outrageous, and yet pathetic. Chloé laughed at that deep inside. "Oh, look, Sabrina!" she mocked the newcomer, "We've got a little do-gooder in our class this year. What are you gonna do, super newbie? Shoot beams at me with your glasses?" Ah, I really am funny, she thought. "Wouldn't you like to know," the newbie answered angrily. She abruptly pulled Dupain-Cheng by the hand while saying: "Come on." To Chloé's amusement, the baker's daughter fell in the most miserable of ways and squashed all her disgusting little treats. She deserved it, Chloé thought. Now then, all Chloé had to do was wait for Adrien, her childhood friend, to come. He had to come that day. She knew it. Meanwhile, she overheard "Super Newbie" and Dupain-Cheng's conversation. The two had apparently just become friends. Worse for them, Chloé thought. "For those of you who don't yet know me, I'm Miss Bustier", said her teacher, bringing her back to reality. "I'll be your teacher this year". But Chloé returned to her inner-world soon. She was thinking about her friend. "Ugh, he should have been here by now", she whined. 'Chapter 6' Adrien was nearly there... He ran for it and... "Adrien, please reconsider! You know what your father wants!" And there goes my last chance of going to school, he thought. Adrien had escaped from home to go to school. He had been homeschooled his whole life and he was tired of it. He wanted to make some friends. He didn't have any - unless he counted Chloé. But attempting to sneak into school didn't help either. His caretaker Nathalie just bummed his plans. "This is what I wanna do!" he replied. It was his best excuse. His bodyguard and Nathalie didn't really seem to care that much, he thought. Desperate, he just turned around and headed straight for the doors of the school he so badly wanted to go to. He was about to enter when he heard a noise. He looked around and saw an old man on the floor, reaching out for his cane. Adrien's first instinct told him to run over to that man and help. And so he did. "Thank you, young man," the old man said with a smile. Adrien kindly smiled back at him and turned back towards the doors, ready to go to school for the first time in his life - but the path was blocked again. There was no way he was going to pass through now. So Adrien sadly came to his bodyguard and Nathalie and said with his most innocent voice: "I just wanna go to school like everybody else. What's so wrong with that?" He was already being lead back to the car. The two of them looked displeased. "Please don't tell my father about this," Adrien said, already with no hope left. The car drove away, leaving the school behind. Little did he know that that man was about to change his life forever... 'Chapter 7' Ivan was peacefully sitting in the classroom when he felt something hit his shoulder. He looked around and found a piece of paper with some scribbles. It had a message written on it. Miss Bustier at that time was saying: "Those of you who have P.E., Mr. D'Argencourt is expecting you at the stadium. The rest of you can head over to the library". That doesn't concern me, the boy thought. He didn't have P.E. that day. So Ivan decided to read the message. But he did not like what he saw. "You haven't even got the guts to tell Mylène you love her, wuss", it said. Mylène was indeed his crush, and it was true, but this was just plain mean, he thought. The letter appeared to be from Kim, the class clown. Ivan couldn't take it. He got up and yelled: "Kim!" He was already about to punch the surprised boy, but Miss Bustier stopped him. "Ivan, what's going on?" she asked. "It's Kim!" he replied, still furious and with his fist still in the air. "I'm so gonna get..." he continued, this time to Kim. But Miss Bustier interrupted him. "Ivan, go to the principal's office," she commanded. Ivan angrily stomped away, leaving pesky Kim behind. This is unfair, he thought as he stormed towards the principal's office. The boy made it to the door. He swung the door open. "Excuse me, young man," he heard the principal said ". Hasn't anyone ever taught you to knock? Go on, out you go, try it again!" This was the last drop. Ivan slammed the door back after coming out. This was plain cruel, he couldn't believe it! But just as he heard the principal say "Go on, knock!", a stranger's masked face appeared before him. "Stoneheart, I am Hawk Moth" the stranger said, clearly talking to Ivan. Ivan wasn't scared, though. "I give you the power to seek revenge on those who haved wronged you," Hawk Moth continued. "Okay, Hawk Moth," the boy said. Hawk Moth's face faded away. Ivan felt a dark substance cover him little by little instead, starting from his fist, the very fist that was holding Kim's message. Ivan let the substance transform him into a massive stone creature. He was now Stoneheart, powerful, unstoppable, vengeful. "Well, come on in," the principal said from his office. Stoneheart broke off the door and ran into the room. "KIMMM!!!" he yelled. Then he jumped out of the building by breaking through the wall. He heard the principal call for the police. But nothing was going to stop him now! 'Chapter 8' Alya, the red-hair newbie, was remembering with glee her last few minutes. In less than one hour she had already made a friend! It all happened after Alya rescued a girl from the clutches of a total brat who was bossing around. The girl had tripped and fallen, dropping a box of macaroons. Alya had then helped her up while the girl apologized. She looked very ashamed and disappointed. All that was left from her treats was one little macaroon. The rest was completely squashed. She sighed. "Chillax, girl. No biggie!" Alya had told her. "I so wish I can handle Chloé the way you do," the girl then said with a bit of admiration and a lot of sadness, referring to how Alya stood up to the brat. "You mean the way Majestia does it," Alya had corrected her, showing a picture of the superhero she admired. "She says 'all that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good people do nothing'", Alya had quoted in response. "Well," she had continued, "that girl over there is evil," she started, pointing at Chloé, "and we are the good people. We can't let her get away with it," she had then concluded. "Well, that's easier said than done," the girl had replied with sadness ". She likes to make my life miserable". "That's because you let her, girl!" Alya had then confidently assured her ". You just need more confidence, ..." "Marinette" was the answer. Marinette had then taken the only macaroon left and broke it into two pieces, offering one half to Alya. "Alya," she had said enthusiastically, taking the offered macaroon piece. The two girls then had eaten their halves of the macaroon. Then, the lesson had begun. Alya smiled. Yes, this was definitely a friend. Suddenly, a loud boom followed by a shake threw her and the rest off their chairs. "Come on!" she said to Marinette, who was rubbing her head after just banging it on the floor. "Did you hear that?" she heard someone say. Alya quickly looked at the screen on the wall, which was connected to a security camera outside the school. To Alya's major surprise, there was a giant stone monster stomping across the street and yelling: "KIMMM!" "What's going on?" Marinette asked confused. "He had Ivan's voice!" she noticed. "It's as if he'd been transformed into a real-life supervillain!" Alya exclaimed, preparing her school bag. "GPS, check. Battery, check," she listed ". I am so outta here!" "Hey! Where are you going?!" Marinette squealed when Alya was already about to leave the library. "Where there's a supervillain, there's always a superhero close behind!" Alya excitedly explained to her new friend. "No way I'm missing this!" Alya ran out of the library, leaving Marinette in the room. The scared girl was probably looking at the screen, wondering what was going to happen next. But Alya had a goal: to meet the superheroes! 'Chapter 9' Holding her inseparable tablet, Nathalie, standing next to Adrien, continued the test, one of the many that replaced Adrien's school. "Who was the first president of the 5th French Republic?" she read from the tablet. The answer came out from his mouth right away, nearly automatically. "Everyone thinks it was de Gaulle, but it was actually René City before the first elections," Adrien recited. "Excellent, Adrien," she praised him. Then, she was interrupted by someone's - and she was pretty sure whose - footsteps. Gabriel Agreste, Adrien's father and the man who she worked for as a secretary, entered the dining room that they were using as a home classroom. His face wasn't what one could call happy. "Give me a minute, would you, Nathalie?" the man coldly asked. "Yes, sir," she answered, wondering what was about to come next. She already had an idea and hoped that she was wrong. "You are not going to school. I already told you," he said to Adrien. Well, she guessed it. "But Father!" the boy replied, looking with reproach at Nathalie. She guiltily looked down, knowing how upset Adrien was feeling. After all, she was the one who told the boy's father about his attempt at sneaking out to go to school. "Everything you need is right here where I can keep an eye on you," Mr. Agreste continued ". I will not have you outside in that dangerous world," he concluded, slightly raising his voice. "It's not dangerous, Father," the boy tried to convince him ". I'm always stuck in here by myself. Why can't I go to school and make friends just like everyone else?" he asked. He was probably preparing that question for a while but hadn't had the chance to ask it out loud. "Because you're not like everyone else! You are my son!" his father said, losing his temper. "Continue," he abruptly added, this time directing to Nathalie. He left. Reaching out her tablet again, she glanced at Adrien. "We can leave it there for today if you have -" she couldn't finish the phrase. Adrien stormed out of the room, straight to his bedroom. She then heard a loud thump. Another thump came after the first, and so did a third and a fourth. The noise clearly didn't come from upstairs. Nathalie looked out of the window and saw a giant rock beast. She wasn't really intimidated though - even when the monster grew in size after being shot by at least a dozen guns and threw a car like a toy. But this was just the beginning of it, she knew it. 'Chapter 10' "I hate first days back at school," Marinette grumbled. She was in her bedroom since everyone was dismissed from school. Suddenly, she noticed a little octagonal black box with a peculiar red pattern on it's lid. "Huh?" She saw that box for the first time in her life. "What's this doing here?" she wondered. Marinette opened the lid of the little box and gasped - a shiny red orb hovered above it. First turning away and then looking in shock at the orb, Marinette witnessed it turn into a small, red bug-like creature. "Ahh! Help!" she screamed ". It's a giant bug!... A... a mouse!" she corrected herself, standing away, "A... a bug-mouse!" "Everything's okay! Don't be scared!" the creature said. But Marinette just panicked even more. "Bug-mouse talks!" she shrieked, throwing everything in her reach at the creature, who miraculously dodged everything. "Listen, Marinette," the creature began ". I know everything may seem a bit strange to you..." Marinette, who had been looking around, trapped the creature in a glass cup ". Okay, if that makes you feel safer," the creature calmly replied. Marinette then interrupted the bug-mouse. "What are you, and how do you know my name?" she immediately asked. "I am a kwami, and my name is Tikki. Now just let me explain everything," the creature - kwami - answered. Marinette attempted to open the trap door that lead to the living room. "Mom! Dad!" she called out. "No!" Tikki somehow flew out from the cup-cage and stopped her. "I'm your friend, Marinette! You must trust me. You're the only one who can stop Stoneheart!" the kwami said. Marinette looked at Tikki indecisively. She was really scared and confused now. All she knew was that Tikki was counting on her. Tikki looked back at her with a pair of trusting, big, blue, shiny eyes. So Marinette slowly nodded. Marinette's approval recieved, Tikki explained that some Miraculous - what appeared to be a pair of spotted earrings - gives her powers. She was supposed to become a superhero and fight the supervillain together with a partner, catching some purple butterflies - aku-something - to save Paris. Tikki also said that there was a superpower - a lucky charm. The power, according to Tikki, could only be used once, after which she would have only five minutes before turning back. Marinette couldn't understand much of what was going on. So after Tikki's monologue, the confused girl said: "This must be some mistake! The only superpower I could possibly have is super-awkwardness... I know!" she suddenly thought out loud. "Alya would know! That's my friend," she explained. "Well, at least I think she would... She loves superheroes! She'd totally be up for the job! You should totally go see her!" she concluded. "Marinette, you are the chosen one!" Tikki said, emphasising every word. The girl had to do it. There was no choice. "Okay," Marinette was trying really hard to digest all this new information while clipping the earrings on ". So all I have to do is break the object where the whatchamacallit is hiding?" "It's called an akuma," Tikki corrected her ". Which you must encapture." "Got it! Capture it!" Marinette paused for a second and then asked: "And what's that charm thing again?" Tikki: "The Lucky Charm! It's your secret superpower!" Tikki explained again. "Oh... this is all going too fast, Tikki... I... won't be able to pull this off!" Marinette said, moving her hands side to side in a sign of fast motion. "Trust yourself, Marinette," Tikki replied ". Just say 'Spots on'." "Spots on?" Marinette repeated. Suddenly, she felt some kind of force pull her head back as her earrings started to glimmer and Tikki got pulled into them. "Whoa! What is happening?!" she shrieked. She felt something appear on her face, then felt a costume replacing her clothes. Once this ended, Marinette looked down and then into a mirror. She saw a girl in a red suit with black spots and a red mask, also with the same black spots. A ladybug-girl. She saw... herself. "Oh... how does this thing come off?" she asked herself, touching the mask. "Tikki, if you can hear me, I want my normal clothes back. I'm not going anywhere!" she said firmly, or at least as firm as she could be given the situation. Marinette looked at the screen of her computer. The focus was on Ivan and... on Alya. She gasped when she saw her friend. Alya was following Stoneheart on her bike and recording him on her phone. "Marinette! Did you get home okay?" she suddenly heard her mother ask. Oh no, she thought, Mom can't see me like this! "Uhh... yeah, Mom! Just super!" she nervously replied, running up the stairs to the rooftop just in time to escape her mother. Upstairs on the roof, Marinette discovered a yo-yo that was connected to her waist. "Okay, I have special powers!... And apparently this amazing super yo-yo thingy?" she said, trying to stay calm and collected. She fiddled around with the yo-yo and threw it far away. She pulled the string and screamed as she was instantly pulled by the yo-yo. She most definitely did not enjoy that day! 'Chapter 11' Adrien Agreste, after witnessing a giant stone being throwing a car at a ploice officer, leaped onto the couch in his room and turned on the TV to see the news. This was no good. Paris was being attacked by this stone monster. For real. The Mayor made a live appearance on TV. The cop said to the public: "Be confident, the strong arm of the law will come crashing down on the... I mean, the other arm", he added, holding his broken, bandaged arm. Adrien then noticed a little black and red box. "What's this doing here?" he wondered. He opened it and found himself face-to-face with a little black creature (well, it looked more like a flying kitten) with green eyes, which formed from a green orb that flew out of the box. There was just a silver ring left in the box. The creature yawned. Adrien excitedly reached out for it. "Woah! Like the genie in the lamp!" he said. "I met him once," the creature replied ". So he grants wishes. Big deal! I'm way more personable! Plagg. Nice to meet you," the creature introduced itself. Then, Plagg flew over to Adrien's foosball table and started to chew on one of the little silver men's head . "Ooh, swanky..." "No! Don't touch that!" Adrien tried to stop it ". Come back here!" "Ooh! So shiny!" Plagg said, referring to the game arcade. "Can you eat this?" he asked, gnawing on the joystick. "No, you can't," the creature answered itself. Then, Plagg continued the search for food. "Ooh, what about this?" After a while of chasing Plagg all over the room, Adrien crawled up a wall and jumped down to the couch, where he just about caught the little glutton. "I still don't know what you're doing here," Adrien said. Trapped in Adrien's hands, the creature quickly explained: "Look, I'm a kwami. I grant powers. Yours is the power of destruction, got it?" Adrien shook is head in denial. "Good," the creature said. "Now, you got anything to eat? I'm starving..." "My Dad's pranking me, right?" Adrien guessed. "Wait, he couldn't be," he said, getting up from the couch ". He has no sense of humour". Plagg somehow flew out of Adrien's hands and became very serious all of a sudden. "Your father must never know that I exist! Or anyone for that matter," he said. Now Adrien was extremely confused. Plagg calmed down a bit with the food hunt and explained to Adrien that... using the silver ring from the box (the "Cat Miraculous"), he was meant to be a superhero and together with his partner had to fight the stone villain. "But I'm stuck here!" Adrien frustratedly explained to Plagg as the kwami played around with a roll of toilet paper. "I'm never even let to go to school! What good is a superhero who's imprisoned in his own house!" "No good," Plagg admitted, running on the roll and spreading toilet paper all over the room, like a real cat. "That's why it's all going to change soon. If you're willing to change, that is," the kwami added with importance. Adrien looked down at the ring, which he had taken out of the box. Of course he wanted to change! He was still so confused, but also... excited? He put the ring on his right hand. Plagg continued and said that Adrien would have an ultra-destructive superpower - "Cataclysm". Then, peeping out of the now empty toilet roll, Adrien's kwami added: "Claws out! That's how you transform". "Got it. Plagg, claws out!" Adrien said. "No, wait! I haven't finished explaining!-" Too late, the kwami got pulled into the ring, which turned black with a shiny green paw on it. Adrien had fun posing and flexing as he felt first a mask, then ears and finally a costume appear on him. He ended in a cool cat pose and looked at himself in awe. "Too cool!" he thought out loud, observing his hands, or rather claws now! Adrien opened a window and left the room, looking back to make sure that nobody was watching. After all, as Plagg said, no-one should know that he's a superhero! Ah, he felt so free when he left! Finally, no restrictions, nobody to keep him captive in the mansion! Adrien then noticed a stick-pole attached to his belt. He took it and stretched it out accidentally, not even knowing how. However, he liked the idea of extending it! He used it to get to the roof of a neighboring house. He did it a few times more. "I'm starting to get the hang of this," he said to himself while tightrope walking over the stick. Suddenly, he heard someone scream from... the sky? He looked up and saw a red figure falling right in his direction! Whoever that was dropped right onto him. They both fell off the stick-pole and were miraculously saved by the yo-yo this person had, which got tangled around the stick. The two of them, Adrien and a girl, apparently, were hanging upside down. "Well hey there. Nice of you to drop in," Adrien said, smiling at his own pun. The two of them landed. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't do it on purpose," the girl excused herself, looking down guiltily. Adrien observed her: she had blueish black hair in two pigtails and a red costume and mask with black spots. "I bet you're the partner my kwami told me about," he said. He decided to introduce himself: "I'm..." He tried to think of a good name. "Cat Noir," he said. "Yeah, Cat Noir!" He liked the sound of his superhero name. "And you?" he asked. "I'm Ma... err... Mar..." she began to say, trying to untangle the yo-yo, pulling it by the string. She managed and it fell right onto Adrien's - no, Cat Noir's - head. He rubbed it as she finished apologizingly: "Madly clumsy. I'm so clumsy..." "No sweat, clumsy girl," Cat Noir reassured her ". I'm learning the ropes too". Suddenly, the floor trembled, and a building started to fall. Cat Noir remembered that there was a villain to fight. So he grabbed his stick-pole and headed to where the falling building was. "Hey! Where are you going?" his terrified partner asked. "To save Paris, right?" he answered and jumped away using his extendable stick. His partner was scared. He heard her scream behind her again soon after, which meant that she was using her yo-yo again. He hoped that they could defeat the villain together. They both would need each other if they wanted to fight the stone monster! 'Chapter 12' Marinette hated this day more with each passing moment. She awkwardly landed over the city's stadium, where some of her classmates were doing P.E.. Stoneheart just made it. "KIMMM!!" he yelled. Marinette observed as Stoneheart landed on the field and chased the terrified boy. "So, who's the wuss now?" Stoneheart teased him. Kim wanted to run away, but he tripped and fell. At that moment, Cat Noir, Marinette's new partner, stood in front of him and said to the villain: "Hey, it's not nice to pick on people who are smaller than you!" "I guess you're talking about yourself," Stoneheart replied mockingly and tried to grab Cat Noir. Marinette gulped as her partner hit the villain with his stick-pole. To her horror, Stoneheart grew even bigger! "Where are you, partner?" Cat Noir called, protecting himself from the stone monster. "Oh, I can't," Marinette whined to herself ". I'm not gonna be able to do it..." Just at that moment, Stoneheart grabbed a net and threw it in Cat Noir's direction. He dodged it, but the net was about to crash down onto Alya, Marinette's new friend, who was recording what was happening! Marinette couldn't do anything, she was paralyzed in fear. Fortunately, Cat Noir extended and threw his stick to block the falling net just in the nick of time. The net bounced off the stick-pole and landed nearby. At that moment, Stoneheart grabbed Cat Noir and immobilised him in his big, rocky hand. "What are you waiting for, super red bug?" Alya turned to Marinette. "The world is watching you!" Marinette could hear her heart pound. She was scared! How would she ever do this? But Alya's words gave her a bit of courage. So Marinette gulped and collected all the guts she had. She had to do it, for Alya, for all her friends, for her family, for Paris' sake! With this, she turned towards the supervillain and said: "Animal cruelty? How shameful!" She tied the yo-yo around the villain's arm and jumped into action. "Yes!" Alya cheered. Marinette felt more confident now. She freed her partner, who quickly joined her on the other side of the stadium. "Sorry it took so long, Cat Noir," she apologized. "It's cool, Wonderbug" was the reply. "Now, let's kick his rocky behind!" Cat Noir tried to leap back into action. "Wait!" Marinette stopped him by pulling his belt (which looked like a cat's tail). "Haven't you noticed? He gets bigger and stronger with every attack," she said ". We have to do something different". "Different how?" Cat Noir asked her. "Uh-huh... I don't know," she admitted. "Okay then. Let's use our powers!" he suggested. "Cataclysm!" her partner called out. His right hand began to bubble with dark energy. "Apparently, I destroy whatever I touch," he explained. "I don't need a superpower to do that," Marinette mumbled to herself, her confidence draining away. Cat Noir reached his arm out towards the net that landed there not too long ago. "No, don't do that!" Marinette warned him. Too late. The net turned black and crumbled. "Cool!" Cat Noir said. He had just wasted his power, however, he didn't seem to know or care. "It's just you and me now! Time to rumble, soon-to-be rubble!" he said, running for Stoneheart. "Cat Noir, wait!" Marinette cried. But he just leaped onto the villain's foot, reaching his right hand out again. Seeing no result, Cat Noir patted Stoneheart's foot a couple more times. The villain looked down, confused by the hero's behaviour. Only then Cat Noir realised: "Uh-oh, I guess I only get one shot to use my power," he said, looking up and waving goofily at Stoneheart, who threw him off. "And you only have five minutes before you transform back," Marinette added with reproach ". Didn't your kwami explain anything to you?" "I guess I was a little excited about my new life," Cat Noir admitted, scratching his head. "Well, up to me," Marinette said. "Lucky charm!" she summoned, throwing her yo-yo to the air. Some shiny ladybugs appeared around it, then a wetsuit fell down. "Super power?" Cat Noir asked, watching her reach out for the suit. "My kwami told me I have to break the object where the whatchamacallit... er, the akuma", she corrected herself," is hiding". "Well, he's made entirely out of stone," Cat Noir pointed out. Not like it wasn't obvious. Marinette looked all over Stoneheart and noticed something. "His right hand, it's still closed. He never opens it," she said ". It's like the Russian dolls. The object isn't on him, it's hidden in his fist!" "So, what's your plan?" her partner asked. Marinette looked around, trying to find something of any importance. She spotted a hose and Alya crouching close to it. She looked down at the wetsuit and smiled with satisfaction. She knew what to do. "This!" She grabbed the hose and tied it to the suit, then tied Cat Noir's feet using her yo-yo. "Don't resist. Trust me," she said without giving any explanations. "This girl's crazy!" Cat Noir screamed when Marinette threw him right at Stoneheart. "Catch me if you can!" Marinette taunted the villain, running with the suit towards him. Stoneheart opened his closed fist to catch her. Now caught by him, Marinette quickly commanded to her friend, who was still watching from a corner: "Alya, the tap!" Alya nodded and turned on the water, which made it through the hose and filled the wetsuit. It became so big that it couldn't fit in Stoneheart's hand. He let go, and Marinette broke the purplish rock that fell out of the villain's hand by stomping on it. A dark purple butterfly flew out of the broken stone. Marinette watched it flutter into the sky. The stone turned into a piece of paper. Stoneheart turned back into Ivan, a pile of rocks fading away with a yellow glow. "What's going on? What am I doing here?" he asked and looked around, confused. "You were incredible, miss... uh... Bug lady," Cat Noir praised her ". You did it!" "We both did it, partner!" she corrected him. "Pound it!" They fist bumped. Cat Noir's ring beeped. "You should get going," Marinette advised him ". Our identities must remain a secret". "Farewell, m'lady," he answered, bowing to her ". We should do this again soon, okay?" He left the stadium. "Not too soon, I hope," she said. She definitely didn't want to have supervillains attacking all the time.. Marinette came to Ivan, but not before reading what turned up to be a message from Kim, her classmate. "You haven't even got the guts to tell Mylène you love her, wuss," she read aloud and gasped. "Kim wrote it. He's always making fun of me," the boy sadly explained. "You know, you shouldn't get so bent out of shape about that," Marinette softly advised ". There's no shame in telling someone you love them, Ivan". "Hey, how do you know my name, miss?" Ivan asked. Marinette, AKA the new superhero, she remembered, scratched her head and giggled nervously. Luckily, Alya saved her accidentally from that question by loading her with a million others. "Uncanny, amazing, spectacular!" she started. "Are you gonna be protecting Paris from now on? How did you get your powers? Did you get stung by a radioactive Ladybug?" Marinette began to walk away, in part because she was about to transform back soon. "Oh, I've got so many questions, uh..." Alya continued, "miss... uh..." That was her queue to think of a superhero name. It wasn't really that hard. "Uhh... Ladybug! Call me Ladybug," Marinette/Ladybug replied. "Ladybug... Super awesome!" Alya said. Ladybug picked up her yo-yo and returned home, glad that everything turned out okay. At home, Ladybug de-transformed. Marinette sat down in front of her computer again. "So thanks to this amateur footage," Nadja Chamak, the news reporter, was saying - in the background there was a picture (clearly taken by Alya) - "the Parisians now know the identities of their heroes!" "I did it, Tikki!" Marinette exclaimed excitedly and relieved. "You see? You were up to it!" Tikki replied. Marinette's Mom called her down for dinner, and the radiant girl quickly rushed down to join her parents. 'Chapter 13' From his room, Adrien was watching the news. Mayor Bourgeois made an appearance again. "I am pleased to announce that we will organise a huge celebration in honour of our city's new protectors, Ladybug and Cat Noir," he was announcing. "Ladybug! Her name is Ladybug..." Adrien said dreamily. "Ew, what is this?" Plagg interrupted him, holding ice-cream in its paws. Oh, come on, Adrien thought. The kwami was being plain ungrateful! Plagg was treating the ice-cream (a whole composition!) like it belonged in the dump. "Seriously? My personal chef made all this!" Adrien pointed out, hoping to bring his new... pet? back to it's senses. "If you expect me to get my energy back after the transformation, I need to eat something more... Delicate!" Adrien rolled his eyes. "Okay, what do you want?" he asked, hoping he could satisfy his picky kwami's appetite... What happened next definitely wasn't the most pleasant of Adrien's experiences, to put it in a way. "Camembert cheese. Fantastic," he said unamused, narrowing his eyes at the view of his kwami gobbling some of that mushy cheese up. "All he eats is Camembert, which means I'm gonna smell like stinky old cheese". "Just as Paris is about to celebrate the appearance of our two new superheroes, Ladybug and Cat Noir, a new wave of panic is sweeping across the capital as dozens of people are mysteriously transformed into stone monsters. It's simply unbelievable!" Adrien heard this and gazed up. On the screen of his TV there were photos of paralyzed Stonehearts! "These victims transformed into stone beings are still like statues," the reporter continued ". The police are perplexed to what will happen to them. Will they come back to life or be frozen in time forever?" Adrien didn't understand. Ladybug just defeated Stoneheart, so why did the supervillain come back? "Plagg? What's going on? I thought we defeated him," he inquired. "Did you capture the akuma?" Plagg asked, still feasting on cheese. "What's captured by the... akuma... got to do with the other stone beings?" Adrien said. Plagg explained that the akuma can multiply if not captured by Ladybug, and if the original Stoneheart became negative, he would be able to control the whole swarm of stone creeps! "So I can't do anything without Ladybug?" Adrien asked his kwami. "Only Ladybug can capture akumas and repair damage caused by supervillains," Plagg confirmed. Adrien was frustrated. He couldn't even do anything himself! He hoped that the paralyzed people turned into Stonehearts would be alright and that Ladybug could help fix this mess. 'Chapter 14' "So that means... this is all my fault?" Tikki looked up at her new owner and saw fear and remorse in her eyes. Stoneheart's akuma had multiplied and infected people all over Paris because the girl had forgotten to capture it. "I knew it!" Marinette continued. "See, Tikki? I'm not cut out to be a superhero! I'm only gonna keep messing up". But Tikki couldn't let Marinette lose hope. "Keep calm," Tikki said ". It was your first time. You're going to go back and capture Stoneheart's akuma, and do it successfully!" "I can't!" Marinette cried in response. "I told you, I'm clumsy! I create disaster all the time! I'll only make things worse for me, for you and for everyone! Cat Noir will be better off without me. I'm quitting," she announced, reaching out for the little black and red box. Not that, Tikki thought worriedly. "But Marinette, only Ladybug can capture akumas!" Tikki tried to convince her to not give up. "Well, if Cat Noir can't capture the akumas," Marinette said, "then... just find Ladybug. I told you, I'm not cut out to be Ladybug!" The girl was taking her earrings off! Tikki looked at Marinette with widened eyes. "I'm sorry, Tikki," Marinette added sadly. It was Tikki's last chance to stop her. She quickly tried to say: "No, don't do tha-" But she got pulled into the miniature replica of the Miracle Box, where she had come out from earlier that day. Marinette's words echoed in the kwami's mind over and over again: "I'm sorry, Tikki..." 'Chapter 15' Stoneheart had been defeated, but not his akuma, which flew into Hawkmoth's magical cane (that came with the costume of his Miraculous). Hawk Moth felt panic spreading all over Paris from his lair as the multiple akumas turned people into replicas of the original villain. "Ivan has a sensitive heart," Hawk Moth noticed ". It won't be long before anger and sadness strike again. And he and the stone beings will come alive. Then we'll see how long you will remain hidden, Ladybug and Cat Noir!" he said. "Once I have your Miraculous, you will be powerless against me". More despair from everywhere... More confusion, fear, worry... Just what he needed! "Everyone will be powerless against me!" he said, cackling as the butterfly-shaped window of his lair was closing. "I will have absolute power! Mwahahahaha!" There was that new feeling from earlier that day!.. TO BE CONTINUED